The tournament's director said the girl's dress could serve as a 'temptation,' according to her coach.
(REUTERS/Vincent West, File)

A girl was forced to quit a chess championship in Malaysia after the tournament director said her dress was too "seductive," a coach claimed.

Kaushal Khandhar, the coach, wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday that his student was participating in the National Scholastic Chess Championship in Putrajaya when the director started commenting on the girl's dress. The tournament was held from April 14-16.

Khandhar claimed the director and head judge of the tournament stopped the 12-year-old girl during the second round and said her knee-length dress violated the tournament's dress code.

"It was later informed (by Chief Arbiter) to my student and her mother, that the Tournament Director deemed my student’s dress to be 'seductive' and a 'temptation from a certain angle far, far away,'" Khandhar wrote in the post.

The judge eventually apologized for the incident, but the student was forced to withdraw from the competition because she couldn't find another dress that met the tournament's standards just in time for the next round, the coach claimed.

“We found this statement completely out of line!" Khandhar wrote, adding that the girl felt "harassed and humiliated" by the whole incident.

The World Chess Federation (FIDE) Laws of Chess' dress code requires participants in tournaments to have a "dignified appearance," The Indian Express reported. Students reportedly did not get dress code guidelines before the competition.

The coach said he's demanded a public apology from the tournament director.

"In the event we do not receive a public apology in the next five days, we shall have no choice but to resort to legal proceedings," Khandhar said.

The tournament director told Malay Mail Online that he would soon file a police report, but did not comment further.

“The tournament secretariat is currently investigating the complaint. The claim posted is different from the official complaint. We will take action once the report comes out," a Malaysian Chess Federation spokesman told the website.